KeyNotes Newsletter
July 2006

Greetings,

I'm back from my mini-vacation to Cape Cod. Though we had only one warm and sunny day - we had a great time! Stepping away from my business is as beneficial to me as working on my business. I make it a priority. I love coming back to work refreshed, renewed and invigorated. I hope you all take the time to step away from your businesses on a regular basis.

As I mentioned last month, summer can be a slow time for many business owners. I consistently take advantage of any slow periods by practicing strategies that allow me to be able to service more clients during the busy times, and allow me to continue to generate income for any slower periods. I thought this would be a great time to incorporate my article about effectively using your time during slow summer months. Enjoy!

Make the Most of Your Business Downtime this Summer
by Donna Toothaker

It is not uncommon for the summer season to be a slow period for many business owners. This shouldn’t be a time to sit back and ride it out. Take advantage of this time to do those things that oftentimes get put on the back burner or at the bottom of the priority list.

There can be a happy medium. Using this time efficiently can help things to run more smoothly during busy times, and can even allow for an increase in sales and service requests just by spending this time more effectively.

Here are some ideas for utilizing this slow time productively:

Organize and clean your office. This is a great time to sort through the paper piles on your desk. Catch up on your filing. Create more efficient organizing systems for your office. But don’t forget your PC – go through and eliminate unused files. Organize your folders. Update your backup system.

Go through your contact list. Call those folks you met at your last networking event. Go through the business cards you collected and follow up. Reconnect with business associates and former clients.

Catch up on your reading. Read those business books you purchased ages ago but haven’t had a chance to read. Go through those business magazines. Attend the teleclass or computer application class you have been hoping to take. Learn that new software that can likely improve business processes.

Update marketing materials. Check your website, brochures and business cards. Update any outdated information. Perhaps they could also use a facelift. Start practicing additional marketing techniques you haven’t had the time to implement such as a blog or ezine.

Write. Start creating the content for the book you plan on writing, or the content for your future teleclasses. Prepare your newsletters and blog postings in advance. Write more articles for submission to directories. Turn your current articles into ebooks.

Work on passive income. Get those info-products up for sale on your site – those ebooks and teleclass recordings. Start an affiliate program for your products and join others’ affiliate programs.

Be creative and find your own ways that, in addition to the above, utilize this slow period effectively. Remember, however, summer doesn’t have to be all work – enjoy it with friends and family and have fun!


Donna Toothaker is an expert Virtual Assistant and founder of www.1stVA.com. Donna specializes in providing marketing and administrative support and services to Professional Speakers and Life and Business Coaches. To discover how 1st VA can help your business – visit http://www.1stva.com .

New Coach Connection

New Coach Connection is one of my favorite Yahoo groups. It's an active, supportive community of coaches - new and seasoned. Below is some information about the group, founded by Candye Hinton - check it out!

New Coach Connection is a virtual community comprised of new and experienced coaches who are seeking ways to collaborate, connect, and create awesome experiences in the coaching profession. This community is a group of many different coaches. We are a safe place to belong regardless of your race, religious preference, economic status or which coaching school you have attended - or not. Our coaches are life coaches, executive coaches, business coaches, financial coaches, and even clown coaches! If you are a coach, you belong here.

For even more information, visit www.newcoachconnection.com.

Resource of the Month

Edit.com - Edit Your Website Yourself

I am Edit.com's new biggest fan. I have a lovely and very talented web designer, however, sometimes I hate to bother her with little changes I want made to my site. Now, with Edit.com, I can do it myself, quickly and easily, without having to bother Amy. Edit.com is an easy and cost-effective website maintenance service that makes your current website editable, so you can change the content yourself. They handle everything to get your site setup and provide you with a phone training to walk you through your first edits. It's also inexpensive and will work with your current website design and hosting.

With their Do-It-Yourself Editing Service you can change text, images, links, PayPal and even add new pages to your site yourself. There is no software to install because it just uses your web browser. They also have web developers who provide free, fixed-price quotes if you need work beyond the scope of things you can do yourself such as adding drop-down menus or changing the core structure of your site.

At no charge, you can have them review your website to ensure that Edit.com will work with it. To get their Free Site Review and more information, click here!

Business Building Tip of the Month
Top 3 online marketing tips for coaches and speakers
by Biana Babinski

Many coaches and speakers have asked me how to promote their business online. Here is some of the information I have shared with them. Use these tips and ideas to promote your own practice online, get more clients and make more money:

- Have a Professional Web Site. In order to attract online clients, you need to present a very professional image online. People who find your web site will equate the professional look and feel of the web site to your own professionalism, since the web site is the only piece of information they have to evaluate your business.

The web site should have professional look and feel and have information about your business, as well as your products and services. There should be a way for customers to contact you, as well as subscribe to your newsletter.

- Publish a Newsletter. Not everyone who comes to your web site will immediately become a client. You need means to keep in touch with people who come to your web site, but are not ready to hire you or purchase your products.

A newsletter is a great tool to keep in touch with your web site visitors, share information with them and educate them about your products and services. Make sure that you have a newsletter subscribe form on every page of your web site, and that you offer a compelling reason for your web site visitors to subscribe to it.

- Optimize Your Web Site for Search Engines. Search engine optimization is the process of modifying web page content and meta-information to improve the search engine ranking of the page. Successful search engine optimization will greatly increase the number of visitors that come to your web site since over 70% of people who are looking for products and services use search engines to locate them.

About Biana Babinsky: Biana Babinsky is the online business consultant, expert and author who teaches coaches and speakers how to get better known online, get more clients and make more money. Get access to Biana's teleseminars, online business resources, audio recording and worksheets for a ridiculously low price of $9.97/month at www.marketingsalad.com.

Happy 4th of July!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 4th of July!

Until next month...

Warmly,

Donna Toothaker